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Birthday Girls: Sharing A Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Cake

May 13, 2008

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you Kate !

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you Tartelette !

Yes, Kate from Aaplemint and I are doing it again! Last year we found out through back and forth banters and emails that we shared the same birthday and decided to bake each other a surprise cake. I just checked Kate's site and she made me Apricot Financiers, and she did not even know they were among my favorites!! Yipee! We decided to make it tradition, which I hope we last as long as we are both blogging, and here we are again! So my dear Kajal/Kate, here is to you a delicious Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Cake.

The cake is composed of layer of meringue with a hint of lemon zest, lemon curd and homemade lemon ice cream inspired from one in my favorite all lemon book. I actually changed propotions, removed some ingredients, and used my usual curd recipe. I liked the idea not necessarily all of what she did. Except the ice cream....Just make that if you can!! You can make one large one or 4 (4 inches round) small ones like I did. It is best to start the meringue and the ice cream the day before you plan on serving it, assemble in the morning and keep frozen until you serve. We have had a serious bout of humidity this weekend so I made the meringue Friday night and left them to dry in the oven. I assembled the cakes about 4 hours before serving so they would still have a good crunch. I shared one with my mother in law Sunday for Mother's Day after many excuses for a cold snack these past couple of days, there is still one left for me later today....just me, hands off Mr.Tartelette! This cake is so lemon through and through that it finally satisfied the perfect lemon dessert I have been looking for these last few weeks. Yeah baby!! is what I say!!

Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Cake:

Serves 12 (instructions provided for a 8 inch round cake, I just used the same concept for 4 small cakes)

For the Meringues:Preheat the oven to 250F. Trace 2 8-inch circles on each 2 sheets of parchment paper. You need 4 circles total for the 4 meringue layers (you can do these free handed which I did since I knew I would have to trim them a bit before assembling). Invert the paper on the baking sheet.Whisk 1/2 cup of sugar with the cornstarch and lemon zest and set aside. Beat the egg whites with the salt until they are foamy. Increase the speed and slowly add in the rest of the sugar, one tablespoon at a time until you get a firm and glossy meringue. Carefully fold in the sugar/cornstarch mixture.With with the back of a spoon (or with a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and filled with the meringue), fill in the circles on the parchment paper. Smooth the tops. Bake the meringues for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and let them dry in the oven overnight.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the cream, 1/2 cup of sugar, zest and the half and half almost to a boil.In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites ad the remaining sugar until they are pale and silky. Slowly add the hot cream mixture over the egg yolks, whisking as you do so to prevent the eggs from curdling. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly until the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon, as if you were making creme anglaise. Do not let it boil.Pour the custard into a container and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until completely cold, stir in the lemon juice and freeze according to your ice cream machine instructions. If you do not have one, freeze until firm, whisk it with a hand held mixer or stand mixer and freeze again. Repeat a couple more times.

Combine the zest, sugar, juice in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer.In a small bowl, beat the eggs until light.Beat some of the lemon mixture into the eggs to temper. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and cook stirring constantly until it thickens up, about 5 minutes.Strain and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Assemble the cake:Remove the ice cream from the freezer 10 minutes before you start the assembly so it will be easier to spread on the meringue disks.Remove the meringues from the parchment paper and set aside the least attractive one for the garnish. Put a large piece of plastic wrap at the bottom (going also up the sides) of an 8 inch round springform pan. Fit one meringue disk at the bottom, cover it with about 1 1/2 cups of Lemon Ice Cream, top with about 1/3 cup of Lemon Curd. Top with another meringue, another 1 1/2 cup of ice cream, another 1/3 cup of lemon curd. Repeat one more time. Crumble the reserved meringue disk and sprinkle it on top of the cake. Wrap the cake and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.Let the cake soften in the fridge 15 minutes before you serve it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I leave you with a picture of my mom and me taken in 1977. I was already trying to make people eat and my first client was my stuffed rabbit Pipou (which now sit on my dresser...yep...still).

Thank you mom for not giving up on me 30 something years ago on May 13th (the delivery story is rather a long one, not so fit for a food blog) . I love you!

Finally, I got an early birthday present from Barbara this morning when she posted the round ups to her Taste of Yellow event, click on One and Two to get there. Thank you Barbara for such an amazing job!

Happy Birthday, Helen! Happy Birthday to both of you :) I hope you are enjoying your day with as much sweetness as you bring to the rest of us. I love that picture of you feeding the bunny. Some things never change, no? :) xxoo Here's to many many more.

Happy Birthday Helen! You are both so lucky to have reciprocally yummy treats :) You know I've never had lemon ice cream before? There's no such thing here! Good thing I have an ice cream maker and your recipe! :)

I just realized you could also freeze the ice cream in two lined 8" cake pans so you can just pop them out and layer them as is on the springform :)

Hi Helen ...Happy Birthday again ...and thanks ,that meringue cake looks wonderful. How i wish i could eat it.U know i have to try this recipe for sure.Hope u have a wonderful day. Cheers, and yes i'll always be a tradition as long as i'm blogging :D

I don't know much about astrology but it's funny how birthdays cluster. My former boss and I have the same birthday and I know three other food professionals born on that day (albeit different years), too.

Happy Birthday Helen!The cake looks too good!Great way to honor each other, you and Kate! Love the picture with your mom---so sweet; you don't think the spoon was a bit too 'small' for that teacup? :)))Have a fun, wonderful day!

Joyeux Anniversaire! I hope I said that right :-p Great way to celebrate your birthday with that delicious looking cake. I hope you have a great birthday and all your wishes come true. :) Feliz cumpleaños!

Happy birthday Helen!I have a question for you. I'm looking for a french pastry recipe and can't find it anywhere. I've just returned from Tokyo, where they have the best French bakeries and in one of those little gems I had this lemon curd (or lemon custard, I'm not sure) filled puff pastry. The pastry tasted sort of like the palmier(???), with lots of sugar on it, almost caramelized. It was shaped like a bell and it was really lemony. Being that it's all about citrus righ now, I thought you might be able to help.Thank you so much!Love your blog!Kate

Oh what a lovely cake, and I say that as a former PROFESSIONAL PASTRY CHEF here in Clearwater Florida (before I got fired).

Anyway, when my BF (I am 50 years old, but I still have boyfriends) Big Bear has his next Bday, I am making him your cake because he loves lemon. And I do anything to keep his Big Bearness happy (see his beautiful photo here:

Well, I sure missed and blew past this one. However late, my warmest wishes for a wonderful birthday and year!! The cake just says you to me, gorgeous and multi-layer filled with flavors. A wonderful fun photo of you and your mom.

Happy Birthday! This looks so delicious. I'm in love with lemon, too, and have an especially hard time resisting anything that's both lemony and creamy. I have to ask around and see if anyone's having a birthday around my way so I have an excuse to make this!

Oh I hope I'm not late to the party!My birthday is in 3 days (trying not to think about it) but It's so nice to know you're a Taurean too.And the idea of a lemon Meringue "cake" is utterly divine and perfect.Tres Bonne Anniversaire Helene!!!

I just stumbled upon your blog and think it is an excellent read for foodies and especially like the photos and design of the blog.I started off as a blogger myself and realise the importance of a good clean design like you have here. I have now bookmarked it for myself to read and have added you to our new list of "all the food blogs in the world" on www.ifoods.tv which we have been compiling for the last month! Hopefully it will send you some traffic in the long run. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on food so keep up the good work and talk soon. Cheers

Happy belated birthday Tartelette. With a fantastic cake like this one I am sure it was only good!!!! And such a sweet photo of a very young you! We're all very grateful to your Mom for not giving up on you :) Hugs from Colleen xx

Again, I've come late to the comments box. I read this post the day it came up, and thought, "I *will* make that!" Trouble is, I'm too spontaneous for my own good... I fudged the assembly, since I decided to make this five hours before the party I was going to, in broiling heat and high humidity - no meringues for me... I made pate brisee discs, made your lemon ice cream, and used some good jarred curd. While I still want to do your version properly - know that you inspired a pretty yummy throw together dessert with that wonderful ice cream!